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I don't see the big picture in valve's new Big Picture.

Okay, so I watch the advertisement for valve's new Big Picture thingy. And it kind of speaks to people who play games on their PC, and want to play those games on a living room TV instead. So I got excited, naturally and also wondering how they pulled this off. I find out later, they didn't. They aren't talking to people who play games at their desks. They are talking to people who already DO play games in their living rooms with their PCs hooked up to the TV. And all Big Picture brings them, is an interface to browse games with their controller instead of having to get up and launch them with the mouse.
And if you are the person that playes games at their desk in their room, in order to use Big Picture in your living room, you would have to rip the rig out of the damn wall and carry it to the living room and plug all the cables in for a session. And for us that aren't 12 anymore a gamingsession usually lasts 2 hours tops, and then you would need to carry your PC back to the desk to do your homework or pay the bills or whatever. So the only solution is to have a PC just for your living room. Now why the hell would I rather buy a 900Ä gaming PC and have it in my living room to play games on my tv, rather than buying a 300Ä console?
What does this product do for a bedroom/study PC gamer? I just don't get it...

I hate to be cynical but I'm a bit underwhelmed by the Big Picture as well. :|

I'd love to be able to play my Steam games on my TV but I'm not about to start lugging my PC into my living room. I guess one alternative would be a really long HDMI cable, but looking up prices online the first one I find is a bit over a hundred euros for a 10 meter cable. That's a wee bit too pricey for me. Can anyone suggest any other viable solutions for living-room PC gaming?

edit: googled around a bit, found a 10m cable for €18, that's more like it. Wonder if the quality/performance of the thing is as good as the more expensive versions tho.

Maybe right now it's a bit underwhelming, but Valve is looking to expand into the movie business. When that happens, it might be more worthwhile for people to invest into this.

Keep in mind that Rome wasn't built in a day. All these new changes are incremental steps towards a greater goal. The following is just me speculating but I'm assuming they will eventually want to compete with consoles by pulling people away from the consoles, onto a PC platform.

Big Picture is for people who already use their computers with their TVs (as media servers/players, for example) or want to. It isn't necessarily for us who believe "Computer at desktop, TV and PS3 in living room".

Steam: Gundato
PSN: Gundato
If you want me on either service, I suggest PMing me here first to let me know who you are.

It's to lower the barrier to moving from a console to Steam. Also, that's a ridiculously over elaborate scheme to hook your computer up to your TV when there's plenty of video of ethernet technologies out there. It's quite possible that in the future users will setup one computer for the household and then have a bunch of thin clients around the house. Finally, if they make a premade - linux based console and sell it at cost, big picture mode will probably be the default.

I get that the product is meant for people who already have PC's hooked up to their TV's. Bit that's not what the advertisement says. The advertisement speaks to the bedroom gamer. IT talks about moving from your desk to the living room. To a different room.
I could connect my PC to the TV with a 10m cable. But then I need to hook up the controller to something. So the PC must be in the same room as the TV, and by same room, I mean next to the TV. Right? I'm not sure, but I think that HDMI only transmits video and sound. So you can't plug a controller into the TV and play a game that is processed on your PC in the next room.

I'm going to try it out tomorrow. We've got a baby on the way in March, and my gaming room is currently being converted into a nursery. Rather than trying to squeeze my desk and gaming setup into our bedroom, I'm going to do a trial run at running Big Picture on the living room TV. With an HDMI port on my video card, and an optical port on my onboard audio, getting it hooked up to my TV and HTS should be a breeze. I'll just have to take a break from MP FPS games for a bit and stick to games that I can play with a controller. If I really did get the urge to play one though, I could rig up some rudimentary M+KB setup. But yeah, Big Picture couldn't have come along at a better time for me. I'm not expecting the world from it, but if I can still play all my games by sliding the entertainment center a few inches to the left and tucking in my PC beside it, I'll be more than pleased with it.

"What were we talking about? Pegasuses, pegasii, that's horses with wings. This motherf*cker got a sword that talks to him. Motherf*cker live in places that don't exist, it comes with a map. My God."

I thought it was great until I realized that it was triggering an already existing issue with my HTPC and games were crashing constantly. I think it's running as a DX or OpenGL app in the background, which seems like a weird thing to do. No biggie, I already have windows set up to display things at 150% size and use one of these guys for navigation.

I game on my laptop, so for me it sounds excellent. My TV isn't anything too special, but the resolution on my TV still made using steam miserable until now.

I think of [the Internet] as a grisly raw steak laid out on a porcelain benchtop in the sun, covered in chocolate hazelnut sauce. In the background plays Stardustís Music Sounds Better With You. Thereís lots of fog. --tomeoftom

I thought it was great until I realized that it was triggering an already existing issue with my HTPC and games were crashing constantly. I think it's running as a DX or OpenGL app in the background, which seems like a weird thing to do. No biggie, I already have windows set up to display things at 150% size and use one of these guys for navigation.

Oooh. How is it? I'm getting that for Christmas. It's for our super cheap yard sale computer that we have hooked to our tv.

Oooh. How is it? I'm getting that for Christmas. It's for our super cheap yard sale computer that we have hooked to our tv.

It's quite good. That button up in the upper left hand corner is a second LMB, so you can essentially hold it like a wide controller. The battery life is terrific and it's pretty lightweight. Very fit for purpose.